Monthly Archives: June 2026

For years, the retirement plan industry operated under a relatively straightforward business model. Recordkeepers made money by providing administrative services to retirement plans. Plan sponsors hired them to maintain participant accounts, process transactions, and support plan operations. That model is … Continue reading →

Many plan sponsors believe fee benchmarking is simply a search for the lowest-cost provider. That approach misses the point. Fee benchmarking is not about finding the cheapest retirement plan. It is about demonstrating a prudent fiduciary process. ERISA fiduciaries have … Continue reading →

Every retirement plan sponsor has procedures. The question is whether those procedures exist only in someone’s head or are documented in writing. Written policies help create consistency, improve accountability, and demonstrate prudent fiduciary oversight. While every plan is different, three … Continue reading →

Many plan sponsors assume that a Department of Labor investigation begins with a deep dive into investments, participant complaints, or complex fiduciary issues. In reality, the first 15 minutes often tell an investigator a great deal about how a retirement … Continue reading →

Most retirement plan providers dread participant complaints. A participant cannot access their account, believes their contribution is missing, questions a distribution, or claims they were improperly excluded from the plan. The initial reaction is often frustration because complaints create work … Continue reading →

Retirement plan sponsors often use the terms “vendor” and “partner” interchangeably. They should not. A vendor performs a service. A partner helps solve problems. There is nothing wrong with being a vendor. Recordkeepers, TPAs, advisors, payroll providers, and other service … Continue reading →

Retirement plan providers spend a great deal of time searching for new business. They attend conferences, send marketing emails, make cold calls, and look for referral opportunities. While there is nothing wrong with prospecting, many providers overlook the most valuable … Continue reading →

One of the biggest mistakes retirement plan providers make is hiring a new employee and assuming they will simply figure things out as they go. The retirement plan business is too complicated for that approach. Yet I have seen firms … Continue reading →

When plan sponsors think about retirement plan risk, they often focus on investment committees, financial advisors, or highly compensated executives. In reality, the employee who creates the greatest risk to a retirement plan is often someone far less visible. It’s … Continue reading →

When a plan sponsor learns that their retirement plan will be audited, the reaction is often the same. They start gathering documents, searching for reports, and preparing for requests from the auditor. While those tasks are important, they miss a … Continue reading →